Lynch was averaging 10 points and 8 rebounds for Minnesota this season. He was a significant role piece to a Golden Gopher club looking to return to the NCAA tournament. This suspension is disturbing, especially with all the reports of sexual assault that have surfaced over the past months. More disturbing is that this is the second allegation against Lynch of this nature. He was arrested on a separate occasion with the suspicion of assaulting a different female student. Lynch was suspended then, but eventually cleared of charges by both the County and the University.

What’s even more disturbing is the time the incident took place. This incident took place over a year and a half ago. Lynch never sat out a game despite being the center of an investigation. There is zero excuse for that to happen. Especially when he it’s more than one account. Innocent or guilty, if someone is accused by multiple people of sexual assault, that person should be excused from a program ten times out of ten. Lynch was not.

In a press conference earlier today, Richard Pitino said he and his staff never saw “any red flags,” when Lynch was transferring to Minnesota from Illinois State. While that may be true, when it happens a first time, there’s your red flag. And when it happens, a second time, that flag starts to hit you in the face. But not to Richard Pitino apparently.

Pitino ended a relatively unhelpful news conference by adding “I don’t know..I’m just the basketball coach.” Sound familiar? That’s what his dad said just months ago when he paid a recruit $100,000 to come to Louisville. What we learned then, stands true now: a basketball coach knows everything that is going on inside their program. They’re not a good coach is they don’t. It would have been tough to believe Pitino had no idea before. It’s even tougher now with everything that’s gone on in college basketball and the NCAA scandal.

Put simply, there is no place for this. Not just in sports, but anywhere. It’s sad and sickening that headlines like this have to hang over what has been such a fun college basketball season already. There will be more to come out about this story, but Reggie Lynch’s career at Minnesota appears to be done (rightfully so) and Richard Pitino’s could soon follow. Here’s to hoping the darkness in college basketball changes soon.